For Zaina Fares, senior, being Yearbook’s co-editor-in-chief means hundreds of interviews throughout the school year, and without phones, the interviews are much more awkward.

“I don’t think people realize how portable our phones are until we have to hold our Chromebooks and go on interviews,” Fares said. “We would use an app, Otter, which would record and transcribe our interviews pretty quickly.”

Without phones, Fares is limited to 3 free uploads per account on Otter.

“I just think it made the journalism aspect much harder,” Fares said.

Over the summer, the new phone policy law came into effect, banning any personal devices from bell to bell. 

The administration asked teachers to come to them to resolve any concerns about implementing their curriculum without the use of phones, said Principal Dr. Tracey Waeckerle. 

“We problem-solved with teachers and discussed options to help support their classroom instruction,” Dr. Waeckerle said. “Each conversation was handled on an individual basis.”

Journalism classes received recorders for interviews, which was less than $300. Timers were given to most classrooms, which cost less than $100. Wired headphones were given to every student, which cost around $900. Additional resources were bought on the district level.

In May, Dawna Barnhart, science teacher, started conversations with administration about how students could take photos in her forensics class.

“When we do our crime scene lab, if a student chooses to do photography, they would use their phones and take over 60 pictures as evidence, which get graded later,” Barnhart said. “The new phone policy makes it much harder to take photos.” 

This year, the crime scene lab was postponed by a week because the forensics class did not have access to any devices to take pictures, Barnhart said. 

Barnhart said the district is trying to find a permanent solution for all science classes, not only Barnhart’s Forensics class. For now, the class has six Apple iPads and cameras that are over 10 years old. These cameras are the Kodak and Nikon brand.

“I definitely prefer having phones because it allows students to work on assignments at home, which makes our class run faster too,” Barnhart said. “The iPads and cameras restrict students to only working during my class, which is fine because I give them time to work during class, but it definitely makes things harder.”

Sydney Kronauge, senior, was taking photos for the forensics crime scene lab with one of the new Apple iPads.

“I definitely think using our phones would be faster because the iPads were being annoying earlier,” Kronauge said. “Also, we had to try to use the older cameras because everyone needed to take pictures.” 

Kronauge prefers the iPad over the cameras because of the better quality.

“The digital cameras were actually causing some issues because the pictures weren’t transferring, and some of the cameras were just straight up not working at all,” Kronauge said.

Dr. Shelley Willott, assistant superintendent of learning and support services, explains how the district supports teachers adapting to the new phone policy.

Teachers contact the curriculum coordinators with a request for a resource, and then the district takes the request and tries their best to figure out a cost worthy solution to best meet the needs of the teachers, Dr. Willott said. 

Teachers mainly requested resources because their curriculum needed a device to record and take videos, all of which is covered with an iPad.

“The departments that were impacted the most by the phone policy were those that often used photos or videos recorded by the phones in a project,” Dr. Willott said. “Currently, we are using iPads the most to cover all of the needs that certain classes might have.”

The funds for all curricular supplies come from the technology department’s budget, and from Prop 3, a ballot measure approved by Rockwood School District votes in Nov. 2023. The amount spent on resources is not currently available.

“Our main goal is to see what we can go without in order to provide teachers with resources because we have to stick with our budget,” Dr. Willott said. 

Senior Master Sergeant (SMSgt) Dan Kriz, AFJROTC Instructor, said cadets would use cellphones last year to capture any activities or events during class time. These pictures can be used for the AFJROTC Instagram and to display around the school or classroom.

Each class, also known as a flight, would have a public affairs cadet who would be responsible for taking pictures during class, SMSgt Kriz said. 

“With the new phone policy, we wouldn’t be able to take photos anymore, so we’ll use digital cameras instead,” SMSgt Kriz said. “We are currently in the process of receiving the camera.”

SMSgt Kriz said that all photos are currently being taken by instructors during class, as teachers are allowed to use cell phones for educational purposes. 

“Overall, I do think that the phone policy helps students stay focused, but it did create some problems,” SMSgt Kriz said.